YOUR correspondent P Young of Chepstow does not know me, otherwise he would realise I am not a Conservative, nor am I associated with that or any other party.
I am particularly disgusted at the smears that Labour are trying to attribute to our MP, and with which I disagree, and also refute the half-baked rubbish that has been trotted out by Labour's activists. If he can dispute what I have said, please do so – if not then kindly shut up!
Into the fray jumps a press officer, who for someone in such a position shows a lack of factual information, as well as financial naivety, in spite of his letter's being headed 'Facing the facts'. The myth that Gordon Brown has 'saved the world' is only believed by the most twerpish elements of the Labour Party, other world leaders opting to do things their own way. But to be fair, the fact that Cameron and Osborne do not have a clue of how to overcome this Labour-induced mess is correct. So far all their utterances have been vague to say the least.
However, to say that the world is following Brown's lead is preposterous. As President Sarkosy of France said, "We shall not make the same mistakes as Britain' (thus sneering at Brown just as Chirac sneered and insulted Blair).
The German Finance Minister was even more publicly scathing. And to think that President Obama took his inspiration from Brown beggars belief. When it became apparent that Obama would be the next President, he and his aides cobbled together the massive rescue package he struggled to push through Congress on his incumbency. That this package is similar in recklessness to that of Brown would indicate that Obama was the leader, and Brown the follower.
Obama's package included a capping of Wall Street salaries. The best that Brown/Darling could offer was a review of bankers' pay and bonus schemes by the end of this year, thus enabling Labour's friends in the City to pay themselves and their shareholders outrageous bonuses and dividends which are entirely unwarrented. Why are not the directors of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley in prison? RBS and HBOS are Scottish banks; therefore our Scottish Labour government would naturally bale them out, especially as most of their employees live in Brown's constituency.
There is no doubt that the troubles within the world's banking systems need to be sorted urgently and they are not Brown's fault. However, the pickle that Britain finds itself in is directly attributable to 'Gormless Gordy', whose first action was to take away the control of our banking system from the Bank of England and to place it with a ridiculous quango, the FSA, which has a staff of 2,500, and costs the taxpayer £415million per annum. It is staffed by (so called) executives who have little financial expertise or qualification, but who are government placemen. Brown was thereby able to build an economy based on easy credit and huge consumer debt, encouraging the cult of borrowing and neglecting saving. Is it any wonder that we are now enduring such a large deficit in public finance? Britain's budget deficit now stands at 10 per cent of GDP. The rate of inflation at 1 per cent is the lowest for 315 years, and the £Sterling has lost nearly 35 per cent in a year. Add to all that the fact that five out of ten of our major banks have crashed and it can be seen what level of control GG's special quango has over our banking system!
Labour's 'real hope for the future' in health, education and crime, is yet again, another pipedream. In press office order, we have seen some new hospitals which habitually are finished late, come in at many percentages over budget, are badly designed, (for example, Gloucester) and soon after opening, close down wards because of lack of qualified staff.
As for education, we are still turning out the highest percentage of illiterate and innumerate school-leavers in the developed world. Labour's 'Building Schools for the Future' project, originally costed at £45billion and which has been revised to £55billion, has so far completed 42 out of 200 schools and Lord only knows when it will be finished. As regards crime; well just refer to the remarks of the Chief Constable only this week.
In conclusion, before anyone believes the intrepid press officer, perhaps they would care to check the foregoing – in other than the Daily Mirror that is. Like the majority of the electorate, I believe that Jeremy Clarkson is right. – Cy Roberts, Coalway.